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Baked Mushroom Custards

When I was growing some mushrooms last week I spent some time thinking about what I was going to actually make with my mushrooms. While I ultimately settled on a galette, I also had my eye on a very strange recipe that I’d never heard of before: Mushroom custard.

The idea just seemed weird to me. But after I got to thinking about it, mushrooms usually work well in cream-based things. I love them in omelets and cream of mushroom soup is one of my favorite things in the world.

So while I passed on the recipe originally, I kept thinking: Man. I really want to bake some mushrooms in a custard.

Helpful Equipment

Directions

1) Gently rinse mushrooms and slice them. Also dice your shallot.

2) Add butter to a large skillet over medium heat. Once melted, add shallot. Cook until soft and fragrant, about 2 minutes. Then add the mushrooms and continue to cook until they are soft and they lose some of their moisture.

3) Pour in dairy. I used all cream. Also toss in a few thyme sprigs. Add back to heat and continue to cook until dairy is steaming. Stir for a few more minutes, then remove from heat and let cool slightly.

4) In a medium bowl, whisk eggs, yolks, cayenne, and a pinch of salt and pepper.

7) Add ramekins to a large baking dish and pour boiling water around the ramekins. The water should come half-way up the dishes.

8) Bake at 300 degrees until custard is lightly set. This will probably be between 30-45 minutes. It’ll take longer if you baked it in a large dish or if you are using milk instead of cream.

9) Serve warm with crusty bread!

Prepping the ‘Shrooms

As far as I can tell, you can use almost any mushroom for this recipe. I’m not sure I’d use the white button mushrooms though just because they tend to not have a really full earthy flavor. So I went with a mix of cremini and shiitake mushrooms which definitely did the trick.

Lots of earthy flavors.

Gently rinse off all your mushrooms to remove dirt and then slice them up. You can keep the slices pretty thick.

A rough slice.

Add your butter to a large skillet over medium heat and then add the shallot.

Once the shallot is getting soft (maybe 2 minutes) add the mushrooms and continue to cook until they they lose their water and start to soften. This should take about 5 minutes.

Try not to overcook these.

Next, add your liquid to the mushrooms. I used 2 Cups of cream for mine because that’s how I roll. If you want a slightly lighter custard, feel free to use half and half or even milk. You could also do a mix. Whatever you are using though, pour it in now along with a few sprigs of fresh thyme.

All cream baby!

Stir this over the heat until the cream starts to steam. Keep stirring for a few more minutes and then remove it from the heat and let it cool slightly.

The Custard

This is a really easy custard to throw together. Once your cream/mushroom stuff is done and cooling, just whisk together your eggs and yolks with some cayenne and a pinch of salt and pepper.

The cayenne is really important in my opinion. It gives a really nice, subtle heat to the dish.

Cayenne is key!

Once your eggs are whisked, slowly pour your cream mixture into the egg mixture – whisking constantly. Pour slowly at first and whisk whisk whisk so the eggs don’t curdle.

Once the custard mixture comes together, you have two options. You could pour it into one large casserole dish and bake it like that or you can pour it into 4 smaller ramekins for individual servings.

I went the individual route.

You could do one big thing also.

Whether you go big or small on the baking dish, you need to bake these guys in a water bath. So add them to a larger dish and then, right before you put it in the oven, pour boiling water around the dishes. The water should go about half-way up the dishes.

Steamy!

Bake this whole thing at 300 degrees for about 30 minutes. Note that this time can vary pretty substantially. If you are using a larger baking dish, you’ll need to bake it for longer (40 minutes probably). If you are using milk or half and half instead of cream, you’ll also need to bake it longer. So if you’re using a large dish and all milk, you might need to bake it for 45-50 minutes to get the custard to set.

When it’s done, it should be slightly jiggly. These guys are perfect (I realize you can’t see the jiggling.)

After a quick bake.

In my opinion these are best served warm or at room temperature. Apparently there are people that like them cold, but that just seems weird to me.

I also recommend serving them with a big slice of crusty bread.

Crusty bread is key.

This turned out to be a really delicious and unique dish. I wasn’t sure that I would like it, but it tasted a lot like cream of mushroom soup which is just fine by me!

If you’re a mushroom fan or just up for something different, give this a shot!

Your website's tagline, "learning to be confident in the kitchen," sounds a little more timid than you actually are (judging from posts like this). Why not change the tagline to something like, "Strutting like a peacock in the kitchen," "Emitting testosterone in the kitchen," "Deducing and seducing in the kitchen," "Massaging your palate in the kitchen," or something else that actually evokes machismo?

I love foraying through various food sites and getting unique or traditional recipes (depending on my mood!!) that i can duplicate in my kitchen. I chanced upon this site by dumb luck and boy am i lucky!! :) from grilled beef tongue to the mushroom custard, i am hooked!! love how the recipes are not overwhelming and at the same time has a peculiar ‘garnish’ to it! really enjoy reading them…

Went to Ellsworth in Paris and ate mushroom custard for the first time and decided I had to make it when I got home. Your wonderful and easy to follow recipe made it fun to make and delicious to eat! Thanks!

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Love Your Leftovers includes breakfast, lunch, dinner, and dessert options as well as a wide range of cuisines. Each main dish includes eight to ten creative recipes for leftovers. With chapters on kitchen and pantry basics and Meal Planning 101, as well as a helpful index of vegetarian and thirty-minute meals. This isn’t just a book you might like, it’s the book your kitchen (and family) need.